7 November 2017 – Condemning the acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of Somalia, the United Nations Security Council today called for a comprehensive response to prevent and suppress such acts and tackle their underlying causes.

In a resolution adopted Tuesday, the 15-member Council also urged Somali authorities, to continue expedite the passing of comprehensive anti-piracy and maritime laws, to establish security forces with clear roles and jurisdictions to enforce these laws, as well as strengthen the capacity of its Somali courts to investigate and prosecute those responsible for piracy.

The Security Council also called upon UN Member States, “working in conjunction with relevant international organizations, to adopt legislation to facilitate prosecution of suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia.”

Also in the resolution, the Council urged all Member States to criminalize piracy under their domestic law and to favourably consider the prosecution of suspected – and imprisonment of those convicted – pirates apprehended off the coast of Somalia as well as their facilitators and financiers ashore, in line with applicable international law.

The UN body responsible for matters relating to international peace and security further encouraged flag States and port States to also consider the development of safety and security measures on board vessels, including, where applicable, developing regulations for the use of privately contracted armed security personnel on board ships, aimed at preventing and suppressing piracy off the coast of Somalia, through a consultative process, including through the relevant UN entities.

The Council also commended the efforts of the European Union Naval Forces (EUNAVFOR) Operation ATALANTA, Combined Maritime Forces’ Combined Task Force 151, counter-piracy efforts of the African Union and the naval activities of the Southern Africa Development Community, as well as the efforts of other States to suppress piracy and to protect ships transiting through the waters off the coast of Somalia.

7 November 2017 – Reiterating the need to bring to justice the killers of two United Nations expert in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Security Council urged the country’s authorities to continue to cooperate with investigations into the incident.

The experts, Michael Sharp of the United States and Zaida Catalan of Sweden were abducted in the country on 12 March. Their remains were found outside the city of Kananga in the DRC’s Kasaï-Central province by UN peacekeepers two weeks later.

In a statement read out by Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi of Italy, which holds the Council’s presidency for the month of November, the 15-member body also encouraged the Group of Experts, of which Mr. Sharp and Ms. Catalan were members, to consider, within its current mandate and in cooperation with relevant actors, including national authorities, issues related to illicit financial activity, including money laundering operations, supporting the activities of armed groups and criminal networks involved in destabilizing activities in the African nation.

“In that regard, the Security Council welcomes the decisions of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region [in October] on the fight against illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Great Lakes region and encourages member States to further increase cooperation in fighting illegal exploitation and trade of natural resources, including gold or wildlife,” read the statement.

The Security Council further encouraged the Group of Experts to work with UN Member States and relevant international organizations, such as the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), so they can produce recommendations to streamline and enhance the control of unwrought gold transported in carry-on luggage.

Also in the statement, the Council warned against attacks on the UN Mission in the country (known by its French acronym, MONUSCO), UN entities, and their associated personnel, including the Group of Experts, and reiterated its readiness to designate individuals and groups responsible for attacks for sanctions.

7 November 2017 – The innovative data collection technology employed by the United Nations refugee agency for the first stage of Rohingya family counting in Bangladesh has revealed a worrying statistic: one-third of the refugee population is vulnerable.

“In an innovative and revealing family counting exercise, UNHCR [the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees] teams found that one-third of the families are vulnerable,” Duniya Aslam Khan, UNHCR spokesperson told reporters at the regular press briefing in Geneva.

Ms. Khan said that “14 per cent are single mothers holding their families together with little support in harsh camp conditions. Others are struggling with serious health problems or disabilities.”

There is also a high proportion of elderly people at risk, unaccompanied and separated children – some of them taking care of younger siblings. Children and women have made up more than half of the total population.

The individual biometric registration exercise, conducted by UNHCR and Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC), took place in the Kutupalong camp, makeshift and extension areas and Balukhali makeshift areas and is now extending to further south.

More than 100 UNHCR-hired enumerators have so far gathered data on 120,284 families comprising 517,643 refugees.

This emergency registration was made successful thanks to the new data collecting technology.

The geo-tagged data collection device was designed to use GPS even without network coverage, making data consolidation and analysis more efficient.

The barcoded RRRC Family Counting Card has also given a shape to Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh in terms of demography and location.

“Because the refugees are still on the move and site zoning is still in progress, the enumerators visit their shelters individually, meaning that refugees do not have to queue to be counted,” Ms. Khan explained.

7 November 2017 – Farmers and the food industry should stop using antibiotics routinely to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals, the United Nations health agency said on Tuesday.

&#8220A lack of effective antibiotics is as serious a security threat as a sudden and deadly disease outbreak,&#8221 said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) in a news release on the new guideline aimed at helping preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics for humans by reducing their unnecessary use in animals.

&#8220Strong, sustained action across all sectors is vital if we are to turn back the tide of antimicrobial resistance and keep the world safe,&#8221 he added.

In some countries, some 80 per cent of the total consumption of medically important antibiotics is in the animal sector, largely for growth promotion in healthy animals.

Over-use and misuse of antibiotics in animals and humans is contributing to the rising threat of antibiotic resistance. Some types of bacteria that cause serious infections in humans have already developed resistance to most or all of the available treatments, and there are very few promising options in the research pipeline.

WHO strongly recommends an overall reduction in the use of all classes of medically important antibiotics in food-producing animals, including complete restriction of these antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention without diagnosis.

Healthy animals should only receive antibiotics to prevent disease if it has been diagnosed in other animals in the same flock, herd, or fish population, according to the updated WHO guidelines on use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals.

Many countries have already taken action to reduce the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals. For example, since 2006, the European Union has banned the use of antibiotics for growth promotion. Consumers are also driving the demand for meat raised without routine use of antibiotics, with some major food chains adopting &#8220antibiotic-free&#8221 policies for their meat supplies.

Alternative options to using antibiotics for disease prevention in animals include improving hygiene, better use of vaccination, and changes in animal housing and husbandry practices.

7 November 2017 – A blockade on basic supplies to war-ravaged Yemen is threatening millions of people and should be lifted immediately, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The call follows a reported decision on Saturday by Saudi Arabia, which is leading the coalition fighting Houthi separatists in the country, to close air and sea ports in Yemen.

The three-year conflict has claimed the lives of well over 5,000 civilians and contributed to one of the world’s biggest humanitarian disasters, according to the United Nations.

Yemen imports up to 90 per cent of its daily needs and seven million people are being kept alive by humanitarian aid.

“Humanitarian operations are being blocked as a result of the closure ordered by the Saudi-led coalition, Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told reporters at the regular press briefing in Geneva.

He said the UN has received reports that in some areas, the blockade is now impacting the daily life of Yemenis, with fuel prices jumping up to 60 per cent overnight and cooking gas jumping up to 100 per cent. “Long lines of cars are queuing at gas stations,” he added.

Mr. Laerke said humanitarian flights to and from Yemen were put on hold, and the coalition had asked UN personnel to tell all ships arriving at the sea ports of Hodeida and Saleef “to leave.”

He told reporters that the current situation in Yemen is “catastrophic.” Some seven million people are on the brink of famine and were only being kept alive thanks to humanitarian operations.

“That lifeline has to be kept open and it is absolutely essential that the operation of the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) be allowed to continue unhindered,” he stressed.

Echoing these concerns, the Office of the UN high Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also expressed alarm at a series of attacks on civilians in recent days that have killed dozens of people, including several children.

On 1 November, OHCHR said, two airstrikes Saudi-led coalition hit a market in Saada governorate, killing 31 traders and guests at a hotel.

The following day in Taiz, a Houthi shelling left five children dead, according to OHCHR Spokesperson Rupert Colville.

He added that survivors said the children were playing in the street when a rocket from a Houthi-controlled area fell on them.

Mr. Colville added that UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein will soon be appointing an expert panel mandated by the Human Rights Council to investigate alleged violations and abuses of international human rights and international law committed by all parties to the conflict.

If possible, the Group of Eminent Experts will identify those responsible.